It is estimated that one person dies of melanoma, a severe form of skin cancer, every hour. Melanoma is characterized by rapid proliferation of melanocytes underneath the epidermis. During early stages of the disease, the tumor has a depth of about 1 mm and it can be excised completely with local surgery at a relatively high cure rate. However, the most common diagnostic for skin cancers, such as melanoma, is visual examination by a trained health care worker. Thus, the disease may often be missed or at least not draw attention while it is in its early stages. In the case of melanoma, this can mean the onset of distant metastasis—where the tumor moves to remote parts of the body through lymph vessels.
Recently, there has been significant interest in developing potent, efficient, and non-invasive techniques capable of detecting early signs of cancer in human skin. Though several technologies, including reflectance confocal microscopy, dermoscopy, etc. have emerged, they typically suffer from limitations associated with single band imaging. These techniques, or others like them, may also be employed for detection of other skin related ailments. Accordingly, it may be desirable to continue to develop additional methods and systems for minimally-invasive pre-screening for skin ailments such as cancers so that the methods and systems may be useable to achieve detection during the early stages of the diseases.